Observations focused on the problems of an underdeveloped country, Venezuela, with some serendipity about the world (orchids, techs, science, investments, politics) at large. A famous Venezuelan, Juan Pablo Perez Alfonzo, referred to oil as the devil's excrement. For countries, easy wealth appears indeed to be the sure path to failure. Venezuela might be a clear example of that.

Archive for November 12th, 2005

Somehow,
the Prosecutor General gets the best of me. I find the things he says
so outrageous, that I just react viscerally to them. The other day it
was his claim that he was being very “coherent” about the Anderson
case, today it is his claim that his only witness, the one that
Colombian intelligence police says was in jail, is a false
psychiatrist, member of the paramilitary and was in jail for identity
theft, is not a crook, according to our wonderful Prosecutor General.

Imagine, a guy capable of smuggling 12 kilos (26.45 pounds) of C4, according to his own testimony, of
the powerful, high velocity explosive, is considered to be by our own
Prosecutor General a stand up citizen, a “good” guy, but certainly not
a crook or a delinquent, in the words of the man anointed in by the
empty revolution to defend the law.

But
I guess that I am not the only one that gets irked by the Prosecutor
General, as Tal Cual Editor Teodoro Petkoff continues to blast him in
his Editorials. For Petkoff it is somewhat personal, as the Prosecutor
General Isaias Rodriguez was a friend and member of his party
Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) from its birth. Isaias took the time to
snipe back at Petkoff yesterday in terms that are to me quite
inappropriate for a man holding an office as important as his. Said Isaias:
“I want to tell Teodoro that I am not going to marry him, to please
stop all that love with me. I don’t like men. For a long time he has
been devoting an inordinate amount of Editorials to me”

Meanwhile, showing their utmost stupidity the leaders’ of Chavez’ party MVR, automatically disqualify the information coming from Colombian intelligence services about the star witness in the Anderson
case. For them “it is a plan by Colombian oligarchy against the
Venezuelan Government, directed by President Bush”. They fail to note
that the Prosecutor’s office failed to contact the Colombian
intelligence agency to check on the credentials or even existence of
their now star witness, but they provide instant solidarity to the
Prosecutor General, which by the way should be an office which is
independent of the Government, as its most important and basic mandate
is very simple to uphold the law. But this is the silly revolution.

Oh yes, I was almost forgetting that our esteemed Prosecutor General claims
the Colombian paramilitary are out to murder him. He never explains why
he is the target, but I guess we do not have the grandiose image of
himself that he clearly holds.

To
complete the post, Petkoff’s Editorial in Tal Cual. Even before I read
it I was quite sure I was not only going to translate, but how could I
miss posting the picture accompanying it of Agent Smart talking into
his shoe:

The Super Witness by Teodoro Petkoff in Tal Cual

Well,
now the cat has jumped into the sink! It so happens that according to
the Colombian DAS (Intelligence Agency), the man that “saw, heard,
touched, smelled and tasted it”, the super witness of Isaias is a guy
with “a penal record in the Colombian Prosecutor’s office for the
crimes of identity theft, swindle and use of false documents”

The
key man of Isaias, according to DAS, is thus, a charlatan, a swindler
and probably mitomanous. The guy, says the DAS, “was detained in 1999
for making believe he was a medical psychiatrist”. The same fib that he
told Isaias who swallowed it whole.

In all of this,
what amazes the most is the incredible ineptitude of the Prosecutor’s
Office. Not taking even the smallest precaution of finding out in Colombia
who the guy is, borders on mental retardation. People like Isaias are
the ones that always fall for the old trick of the “fake money swindle”.

Any
competent charlatan could have tricked the. That neither DAS nor the
Colombian Foreign Ministry have received “any requirement for the
Venezuelan authorities” is simply astonishing. All of the Venezuelan
media have been looking for , from the first moment, information in Colombia, but the Prosecutor’s office did not even think of doing it. My God, in whose hands are we!

Besides the fact that a single testimony does not constitute proof, that an accusation of the gravity
like the ones he made, can be faked-if the DAS is correct- on the bases
of a charlatan, of a swindler, whose personality was never verified, it
practically leaves the case hanging fromm a string.

The only thing missing is for the Prosecutor’s Office to present Super Agent 86 as a witness to the Court.

Alter a ridicule of this magnitude, Isaias Rodríguez will have to seriously consider his resignation. It is a matter of decorum.

Unless
he prefers to resort to, to analyze his case, the professional services
of Doctor Giovanni Vasquez De Armas (the name of the super witness),
the famous Colombian psychiatrist.